**spoiler alert** I'm going to fill this review with spoilers, so ye be warned.

I found this to be one of the few dystopian books I've read as of late**spoiler alert** I'm going to fill this review with spoilers, so ye be warned.

I found this to be one of the few dystopian books I've read as of late that actually builds a decent dystopian world. Todd lives in a society that is infected with a germ that makes it so everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts, or Noise, as they call it. I've seen mind-reading handle a few different ways in other novels, but this is by far my favorite. Patrick Ness handles it in such a way that he makes it clear from the beginning that to have Noise is incredibly uncomfortable and undesirable. This is especially nasty when you have be around people that aren't exactly nice and maybe a little insane. In fact, Ness writes it so well that when I had to put the book down to do something I had sudden moments of panic that whoever was in the room could hear whatever thought had just crossed my mind. That's how immersed I was when I read this book.

I think what I loved best is the way that Ness handled the dynamics between men and women in this novel. You only get a glimpse of this, I wanted more than what we got, but I found it interesting that as Todd discovered a new town he also discovered there were different ways one could operate when you had men cursed with Noise and women completely immune to it. You have Todd's own town, so full of bitterness and hatred that they killed at the women and then only deteriorated further after the fact. Then you have Farbranch, a town that seems to be run by women, though with equal amounts of work done by both sexes. And then you have other towns in which the men aren't so violent but still feel the women "aren't to be trusted". It was like running into little tiny dystopias within the larger dystopia. It makes me wonder if there are any more versions in the sequels to this book-- perhaps a town with only women because they couldn't stand to hear all the men's Noise? The world is written in such a way that there could be endless talk on how the overall society functions or could end up functioning, and that's part of what made it so fun.

The other part of what made it so fun came in the form of a little dog named Manchee. It occurred to me while reading that Ness could've done this a couple of different ways, but the one he chose was likely the best. It'd have been weird for example if the animals could form complete thoughts and opinions on their surroundings, and it would've made them too human-like. Part of the beauty of dogs, after all, is their ability to be intelligent enough to form bonds with humans, yet simple enough to have a great deal of innocence and dependency. The fact that Ness maintained this in his world is what made it all the more emotional when Manchee said "Todd?" for the last time.

Can you tell I love dogs? Because I love dogs.

Admittedly, I still had a few problems with the book. Aaron and Prentiss Jr. got tiring after a while, and the reveal of what it is that they wanted from Todd in the end seemed anticlimactic. I kind of personally dislike it when stories make a huge deal out of killing someone even when it's self-defense. Even when you know that if you run away he'll just follow you and try to kill you again. I don't advocate killing out of revenge and grief, but damn, when you just wrestled for your life with him and you've got an opening but you don't take it? I'm going to get annoyed. I also find it a little hard to believe that Todd was the only boy who wouldn't kill someone. It would have been interesting if he noted that some boys had actually disappeared around their birthday, 'course he wouldn't have known why.

I'm very excited to read the next book, I'm hoping to get a copy as soon as I can. ...more

Wow. This book was so, so poorly written. There were so many problems, I'm surprised it got published this way.

First, the world building was completeWow. This book was so, so poorly written. There were so many problems, I'm surprised it got published this way.

First, the world building was completely terrible. All these horrible dystopian concepts were poorly explained, so much so that I'm still not clear on this whole XVI tattoo. The government mandates it for the "protection" sixteen year old girls, but really it's a sign of a free pass for guys to force girls to have sex. Or something like that. So where exactly does the government start failing to protect the people? I got the idea that girls were fairly safe without their tattoo, somehow older guys looking for sex have learned to stay away despite any interest, so... if the tattoo is for protection, what gives guys the green light to ignore that idea? I don't really get it.

Second, it's also ridiculously unbelievable that people like Nina's Gran and Pops are alive and that there's all these losses of basic rights to human beings. It's really hard to imagine that their generation would've allowed so many radical changes to happen (like the erasure of real history), it would've made more sense not to have had people of that generation around to rant about how everything's so terrible now. So many of the dystopian concepts made it very hard to suspend my disbelief. That whole Cinderella girl thing? C'mon, Karr, that was just lazy. Oh, and entirely getting rid of religion? I honestly cannot believe that any society would allow their government to get rid of religion because it caused too much conflict. Religion's been causing conflict since as far as mankind can recall. People are deeply devoted to their beliefs, there's no way a large government could be like "Look y'all, this is causing too much drama, let's just set it aside okay?"

Third, the whole thing with domestic abuse between Ginnie and Ed was handled poorly. I can't really see how the hell Ed would choose to carry on a relationship with the woman who was married to the man he wanted to track down. Stalking her and hurting her I would believe, but c'mon, it allowed her to get info on him and that whole sex slavery thing with FeLS. That's just lazy villainry. I also found it unbelievable that through all the years Ed and Ginnie were together Dee never realized Ed was beating her and so still totally loved her daddy. I say to you again, c'mon, kids aren't stupid, she would see Ginnie's bruises all the time. She'd put two and two together, any kid would. And I'll admit the whole thing about Ginnie essentially undercover felt like such a cop out, as if the author wanted to introduce the gritty topic of domestic violence but couldn't really go all the way. If you really don't know how to handle it, you should probably leave it alone.

Fourth, "trannie" makes me think of Christian Siriano.

Fifth, I hated the lazy ways in which we were told about the past. Like, "Oh of course you all know about that hurricane that wiped out that city called New Orleans back in 2025." "Oh, was that when they started looking for alternative energy sources?" "Sure is." No one talks like that! Especially not teens, and especially not a group of people who agree upon one narrative for the shared history of their society. It was just lazy exposition through dialogue, and it's one of my biggest pet peeves.

Sixth- Sandy's whole storyline. I CAN'T EVEN. The way the author portrayed her to show us just how good Nina was in contrast to Sandy, because Sandy's essentially such a slut in training. I hated, hated that a character existed to basically send the message of, "SEX IS BAD IF YOU'RE A TEEN GIRL. BAD BAD BAD. SO BAD YOU MIGHT BE MURDERED BECAUSE YOUR VALUE AS A HUMAN BEING IS BASICALLY NON-EXISTENT. I MEAN YOU WERE SO DUMB FOR WANTING ALL THAT SEX, WHAT ELSE COULD HAPPEN TO YOU IN THE END, AMIRITE?" Ugh.

Finally: My god, Dumbest Protagonist Ever. I mean just dumb, dumb, dumb. Whining about how horrible it is for anyone to want to be a sex-teen (ugh, virginity and being sexual, another topic handled horribly here) and looking down on her friend but then talking about how much she loves her, bla bla bla. Then worrying on and on about Ed getting Dee, but then leaving Dee alone or taking walks across the park by herself. There were so many times that her friends asked her, "Are you sure you don't want us to come along?" and she kept saying, "I'm fine" and then something terrible would happen. No person with an actual brain would behave like this girl did.

I will definitely not be reading the sequel. I don't see the point, this story pretty much went nowhere and I wasn't ever remotely entertained or intrigued. It was barely even good for the lulz. ...more